Why not simply stay in the existing customs union for an interim period rather than try to create a new one? First that would mean staying in the EU longer, since only EU members can be in the EU customs union. Second, for legal reasons, that would preclude the International Trade Secretary, Liam Fox, from being able to negotiate new trade deals with the likes of America and New Zealand - and for some reason giving Fox something to do has also been judged by the Government to be an inviolable imperative stemming from the referendum result.

It is unknown whether the EU will accept the Government's interim customs proposal, but there are good reasons to suspect they will not. And, even if they did, the bigger problem is that a temporary new customs union in 2019 still isn't enough to avoid a cliff-edge for UK firms.

Even if the EU agrees to the transition and the UK and EU successfully recreate a new temporary union, there will still be major trade frictions. Turkey has a customs union with the EU but Turkish imports still have to be checked at the border to ensure compliance with EU standards. There are long queues of lorries at the Turkish-Bulgarian border.

Alliance with "The Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories" (62-63) epitomizes an afterthought, notwithstanding denouement of the POROUS BORDERS OF THE ENCLAVE crisis. Expect UK to pull this trick 3x more.

That is to do nothing, shifting enforcement cost to the EU. Expect the EU to run down the clock.

The "new customs arrangement" merely reiterates current, incumbent UK membership already affirmed by the EU (excepting some flagrant UK resignations from the EP and summit schedule conflicts). The gov't does flog UK win-win IT tech. So there's that. Accordingly, UK gov't needn't acknowledge the purposes of the A50 settlement period (24-mo "interim") established by the Council from Q4 2016: sever and cashier UK capital investment in and obligations to EU governance.

Accordingly, UK gov't doesn't acknowledge the deadline March 2019: For it is at point --with or without an agreed payment schedule-- UK acquires third-country status viz. EU27 interstate trade, with or without kinda, sorta adopting ("mirroring") just one freedom of the EU legal system.

This time stamp is incorrect. I posted before called a cab (1: 19 PM EST) to take me to a job interview. I read the position papers as I wrote it and before I showered (12:35 - 1:10 PM EST) and dressed, well before then.

Much is made of the easy Norway-Sweden border, but both states are members of the single market but also the Schengen free travel area. Even so, there are controls and checks, and there would be many more if either country had the British phobia about migration.

The reason why the Irish border issue hasn't been sorted out more than a year after the Brexit referendum is that it cannot logically be the same as it is now - frictionless and seamless. When the UK leaves the EU customs union, with or without transition arrangements, some mechanism will be necessary to certify origins, to ensure that goods imported into the UK cannot travel into the European Union, ie Ireland, without some notification of their origin and whether they conform to EU rules and have paid EU duties, and vice versa. Otherwise the EU's common tariff barrier and the rest of the world cannot work. Modern technology and licences granted to trusted companies can help assist this, but the fact remains that some fresh bureaucracy, even if mostly digital in form, will be required, and human beings will be needed to police it.

I think if the UK comes out of this as a still functioning national entity I would suggest it's gonna be more luck than any design of the Tory party's. Personally I think a distopian nightmare of warring city states with smoking rubble in between is most likely, at which point we can only pray for a viking invasion.

This is entirely logical. The UK is fed up being one within 28. It wants to be treated as an equal partner with the EU27. After all it used to run an empire on which the sun never set. The whole premise of the UK approach to the Brexit negotiation is based on this. The UK government is luxuriating in all the attention it is getting as a result of Brexit. No one ever gave it so much respect when it was only one amongst 28. Unfortunately it's days in the sun are numbered, and on April 1st. 2019 the sun will set, and even fools will begin to realise it will never rise in quite the same way again.

Google faces a Tuesday deadline to tell the European Union how it plans to comply with an order to stop discriminating against rival shopping search services under threat of new fines that would add to a record 2.4 billion-euro ($2.9 billion) penalty.

The EU gave the Alphabet Inc. unit 60 days to propose how it would "stop its illegal content" and 90 days to make changes to how the company displays shopping search results when users start seeking a product. Those changes need to be put in place by Sept. 28 to stave off a risk that the EU could fine the company 5 percent of daily revenue for each day it fails to comply.

In critical theory and postcolonialism, the term subaltern designates the populations which are socially, politically and geographically outside of the hegemonic power structure of the colony and of the colonial homeland. In describing "history told from below", subaltern was coined by Antonio Gramsci ...

Another question that arises is: "How were the torches obtained?" They all appeared to be identical to me. And there were a lot of them. They looked like garden variety 'Tiki torches' - perhaps $20 - $30 each, but in the hundreds or thousands. Have the organizers stated a number for the size of the procession? How does that compare with police estimates?

Then there is the question: "What are the policies and limitations on public processions on University and city streets, respectively?" Are there any? What tools would have been available and what restrictions could have been imposed had Black Lives Matter sought a permit for a procession with over 1,000 participants at the University or in the town.

Did the University of Virginia actually give this group of crazies a permit for the torchlight parade? If so, why should they be surprised at the chants of "We will not be replaced by Jews!" Some serious consideration of the common sense, if any, of the current University Administration needs to follow from the State of Virginia. The organizers HAD to have planned for this to be deeply offensive to those they despise. As a public hazard that procession was tantamount "to crying 'FIRE' in a crowded auditorium." Had that not been opposed, the next time these worthies would have been chanting for killing their most hated minorities and not with polite descriptors.

The city of Charlottesville permitted Unite the Right ("alt-right") rally. Reports I read Sun, 13 Aug, two days after commencement of rally commencement parade 11 Aug, estimated 6,000 "alt-right" congregation. My source was Metafilter: I tracked linked stories about the vehicular homicide of pedestian by-stander/counterprotester to the Daily Progress. She was crushed between two parked cars by the perp.

I skimmed quite a few, faulty dox initiatives in the process, including but not limited to permit holder's identification with UVA alumni.

Since then, Sunday, I have noted with interest and no surprise that commentators have embellished facts of events that weekend with isolated black-hooded anarchist-like property destruction and altercations between fiendish demonstrators and provocateurs. As is the custom. Since, like, Haymarket.

Thanks for the summary. I missed most of the details early and didn't trust my impressions too much. From your Metafilter link:

On 11 August 2017, alt-right protesters surrounded counter-demonstrators standing in a ring around the Thomas Jefferson statue at UVA in Charlottesville, VA. This was a preamble to the main Unite the Right rally, taking place today. ACLU Virginia is present and posting updates via Twitter.

That confirms my impression that the whole thing started with the torchlight parade at UVa with the chants. I missed that protestors had been surrounded by the marchers and their associates by the statue. That was not well elucidated on PBS News over the weekend.

Later the article indicates that the UVA had sent an email that approved the rally and that they have been criticized for so doing. The NYT has a piece up on the role of the ACLU and the criticism it has taken. I do like the response of the University of Texas official who said of open carry advocates that, should they come onto campus to hold a demonstration they would be arrested as they are not a part of the University Community. That contrasts very favorable with the UVa actions and is actually a very sensible position. The commenter rightly notes that Universities should have plans to deal with such situations - especially with those not done by their students.

I've no idea why you fixate on UVA responsibility for UNITTE THE RIGHT rally permit, when I've told you that the city issued the permit, opening the door to 6,000 radicals.

I've spent some time in Ch'ville, because one of my college roommates stettled there. I visited. I would not. It's a bullshit small town, notwithstanding Tho. Jefferson's legacy of bullshit federal-democratic central government in the canon of US American democratic ideals. Which left plenty room for his despotic competition with rivals and aristotlian philosophy of agrarian "good life" in executive offices.

Before this, my college roommate was appalled that I wandered one dawn to photograph the agrarian landscape ringing Ch'ville and came home alive.

Richmond was the capitol of the confederacy, let's not forget. Virginians haven't to this day. But DNC's PR apparatus in recent years would like to cast the pop "liberal", which no one, I promise you, in the DMV believes, regardless of their GSE contractor employment status. Only comparative"NoVA. The state is that red, despite DNC propaganda supporting Fed candidates. Swanson agrees.

2. The racists who have begun coming to Charlottesville to campaign for governor, garner attention, threaten violence, engage in violence, and commit murder are almost all from outside Charlottesville, and extremely unwelcome here. Charlottesville is a slightly left-of-center, Democratic Party area. Most people don't rally for good causes or against bad ones. Most people don't want the Lee statue taken down. (Or at least they didn't until it became a gathering point for neo-Confederates.) Most people want other memorials added to public space to diversify. And most people don't want white supremacists coming to town with their hatred and their violence.

UVA venue for UNITE THE RITE opposition around a flag was a sideshow of a profound cultural dissemblanc , causa belli. What you might like to do is verify anarchy.

I was just trying to sort out how this began - at UVa with that grotesque parade with torches. And I know that there must have been planning on the part of the Unite the Right people. IMO the University should have invoked the same principle as cited by UT admins and just have moved to arrest them for demonstrating on the campus when they were not part of the university community.

And I am well aware that Cash's description of the locals in

The Mind of the South

still applies, especially to those drawn to Unite the Right. It does seem that the portion of southerners who fit that description is significantly smaller these days, but that fact only serves to make those who remain more fervid in their defense of those views.

The University of Virginia (U.Va. or UVA), frequently referred to simply as Virginia, is a public research university and the flagship for the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Public institutional status (tax funded income, in whole or in part) differentiates private establishments in education AND commercial enterprise. The business of very public funded enterprise in the USA is subject to de minimis compliance tests with US constitutional or federal, not state, enforcement including but not limited to 1st Amd civil rights.

My clever neandertal and denisovan allele-bearing cousins have fixated on these public criteria to identify test case petitions and litigate alleged unconstitutional race-factor discrimination ("preference", "bias") by admissions officers' compliance with EEOC statute and agency regulation. Because 1st Amd. clause, case law, "freedom of association" may lawfully permit someone to discriminate application of civil rights under supreme law of the land, especially 14th and 15th Amd.

Ima guess, because my professional experience orchestrating premium merchandising for promotional events counts for shit among eurotrib subscribers who also have no idea how anyone, especially, Louis Farakhan could organized a Million [Man] March ("meme" [!!!]) in the USA.

Price of RT transportation to the site includes one tiki torch (Made in China). Bring Your Own Lighter (BYOL).

Did lots of the Unite the Right protesters arrive by charter bus? What I noticed was that all the torches I saw seemed identical. That suggests they were provided by the organizers and those organizers could also have chartered the buses. And it certainly was no surprise to me that Louis Farakhan could organize the 'Million Man March', nor would it surprise people at ET, IMO. We all should have known that since MLK's memorable appearance on the on the National Mall for the 'I have a dream' speech - unless blinded by racial bigotry.

Indeed. Bus --mass transit par excellence-- is how black folk have traveled US America, because price, because "fierce urgency of now". We were both seasoned adults in '95, ARG. But how you or I recall the effort to assemble peacefully (1st Amd) in D.C., to instantiate protest of gov't sanctined abridgements of civil rights (from abortion to voting, housing, employment) varies wildly, I'll warrant. It was a "thing" in '95 unknown since '63, '53. Subsequently, Farakhan's "entrepreneurial" accomplishment --which was specifically to instantiate the POLITICAL AGENCY of black men in apartheid USA-- was crucified by MSM for at least a decade, because his "anti-semiticism".

The Internet was young in those days, so men mainly got wind of the march through church, their favorite watering hole or the barbershop, which is where I first heard about it.
[...]
My bus had a mixture of young and old heads on board. There was some singing, a lot of debating, but no violence. Cursing was not allowed on the bus, and at least one person was taken to task for firing up a joint (we may not have known what kind of party it was, but we knew it wasn't that kind of party). We were all bracing for a life-changing experience, but when we got to D.C., there was no itinerary; we were on our own.

Ask yourself, "SELF, why don't I know how many of 6,000 estimated UNITE TO RITE protesters? Did all 6,000 arrive in passenger cars and park at UVA lots? Is 6,000 or 1,000 less than one million? Is there video?"

Well, travel by bus, such as Greyhound or Continental Trailways, has substantially collapsed in the USA in the last 20 years. I saw many abandoned former bus terminals in LA before I left and have found there is no regularly scheduled bus service in Mountain Home, Ar. This was why I expected that how ever many Unite the Right demonstrators came, they mostly came by charter bus. The parking would have been a problem indeed. Though some may have come by car and stayed in motels. Were anyone actually interested in investigating the details of the episode the chartering of buses would likely be a good place to start.

The lack of European media and relative powerlessness of the parliament means that popular pressure is better applied to state capitals were you can target your legaslative and executive with demands for the executive voting no in the council and more importantly getting the media attention. Having demonstrations in one state capital and media attention makes it easier to get media's attention to demonstrations on the same issue in neighbouring states.

Then you work with allies in the EP when the parliamentarians see that the issue is important in their home state.

Or at least that is how I remember the reasoning behind the campaign to stop ACTA.

I doubt that many here have demonstrated outside the European Parliament for the simple reason that most of us would have difficulty remembering the EP doing anything of consequence; good, bad, or indifferent. Power in the EU is still overwhelmingly wielded in national capitals, something the Brexiteers never wished to acknowledge, because that would have meant acknowledging that all the things they blamed Brussels for had in fact been tacitly or explicitly endorsed if not actually spearheaded by their own government. Brussels has been a convenient scapegoat for the UK, little more.

I know I have, but I don't know how many have. I also don't now what entitles you to this information. We don't encourage personalised political discourse or "lefter than thou" moral posturing or superiority here.

I am an interested party to EU um democractic processes, no more or less exercising "moral posturing or superiority" than you have by promoting "Booman" election to an office of public trust in the USA.

I'm not sure how reaching out to Booman in his disillusion at his pundit role and suggesting their might be another way of dealing with his anger and frustration at political developments in the US constitutes "moral posturing or superiority" and I am sure he didn't take it in that spirit as he recommended my diary - something he almost never does. However YMMV.

is of utmost importance in evaluating the number of and solidarity of "social democrats" worldwide. There is no safety in numbers according to the Law of Large Numbers, if most respondents to a survey refuse to identify their actual participation in protest, or participation in grievance of state governance, by assembly or ballot.

I have always assumed that, should they be interested, 'US Agents' could quickly identify ARGeezer and any of the commenters at ET or elsewhere. The only thing bought is that they would not be able to use this information in court until after they had obtained a warrant to obtain it legally. But I rather doubt that I would ever be considered worth such an investigation, and, if I were so considered, there is much that could be done to discomfort me without ever bothering with the courts.

The poor recognize Trump for what he is: he's the guy who collects the rent, who turns the water and electricity off, who spits at you when you ask for money for food, who sends your kid off to war while his goes big game hunting, who snitches your mom out to the cops for her Oxycontin habit. They don't need any false words from Trump to heal their shock about the evil rampage in Charlottesville. They aren't shocked by Charlottesville. They've lived that reality most of their lives. And they aren't startled that the perpetrators have sympathizers in the government. That's the way it's always been on the mean streets of America.

I wouldn't say I'm a big Pence fan. But everything's relative. He doesn't approach each hour as a mortal threat to precarious manhood, and it's hard to imagine Pence groping women, or bragging to others that he did. When Nazis went on a homicidal rampage, Pence's response, aside from the requisite media bashing that all Trump White House employees must engage in, seemed both professional and perturbed, suggesting he did not, on the whole [?!], approve of murderous thugs. ...

I prefer Trump to Pence. Trump creates so much chaos that little gets accomplished - and that is the best thing about him. The less he accomplishes the better off we all are. Pence, OTOH, would try to create as little chaos as possible and could get much more of the very same agenda passed into legislation. Let Trump hang in there until December of 2018.

Vice President Mike Pence and national security adviser H.R. McMaster rehearsed their pitch heading into the Camp David strategy session in an effort to persuade Trump to accept commanders' proposals to beef up the 8,400 American troops in the country, the sources said.
[...]
The two sources -- an administration official and a senior White House aide -- also confirmed that Erik Prince, founder of the former Blackwater private security firm, had been scheduled to attend the session but that he was blocked at the last minute. The administration official said McMaster was the one who blocked Prince.

And I certainly did not mean that I am happy with Pence. I can only wish that we had a repeat of the Agnew/Nixon sequence, but that would depend on Pence having done something egregiously illegal AND apprehendable as such by a majority of the US electorate. And just who could be appointed in Pence's place? A fifty food diameter meteror striking the White House when both Trump and Pence are there seems more likely.

The police reportedly issued the warrant for Cantwell for his alleged illicit use of pepper spray and injury by caustic agent or explosive.
[...]
As he listed all of the procedures he and his associates followed in order to gain an assembly permit for the fatal "Unite the Right" rally on August 12, Cantwell said he "honestly" believed he has been "law-abiding."

hmmm. DoJ being in the state it's in, it is unlikely anyone is left to assemble mail and wire fraud charges against Cantwell. That case could, if successful, put him away for a few years. No "Hate Crime" escalation needed!

'Assault with intent to do great bodily harm' should be chargeable for an act that could result in blindness and, if convicted, that would carry significant prison time. Prehaps Va can handle this without DoJ.

WASHINGTON ― Sebastian Gorka, a controversial adviser to President Donald Trump, is leaving the White House after months of criticism about his ties to far-right foreign political groups and his description of Islam as an inherently violent religion.

The Federalist published a copy of his resignation letter Friday. But after the letter was made public, a White House official implied that Gorka was forced to step down. "Sebastian Gorka did not resign, but I can confirm he no longer works at the White House," the official said late Friday.

WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump on Friday pardoned a notorious former Arizona sheriff who willfully violated a federal judge's order by unlawfully detaining individuals his officers claimed might be in the country illegally.

Former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who had previously proclaimed himself "America's toughest sheriff," was convicted of criminal contempt last month for violating a 2011 order that barred Arpaio and his office from detaining individuals solely based on suspicions about their legal status. Arpaio, 85, was scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 5.

The majority of applicants come from war zones in Iraq and Syria, getting to Morocco after a long trip across the continent, but in recent months there has been a surge in Moroccan applicants from Alhucemas, the Moroccan city at the epicenter of upheavals in the Rif region, about 100km from Melilla.

The department Ajanuch heads on Tuesday (7 February) issued a statement in which it warned of the "serious consequences" that will arise from "obstacles" the EU puts in the way of the agricultural agreement signed in 2012. The agreement was partly annulled by a court in December 2015, for including Western Sahara, but the European Court of Justice overturned the ruling last December.

Beyond the preamble to the judgement, which distinguished between Morocco and Western Sahara, "there is now a very clear verdict initiating the agreement". Morocco will now "not accept others trying to apply their own interpretations. [...] The EU's attitude is confusing," the minister added.

There are no "Pétain landmarks" per se anywhere in Europe. We can probably find references to him on the monuments dedicated to the battle of Verdun in 1916, where he was the main military leader on the French side. BTW, it was because of his role during WW I that he was invited to NYC in 1931, and the plaque in question was put there on that occasion - a good nine years before Vichy. Note that most monuments to WW I & II do feature anonymous soldiers rather than generals (I was thinking of this).

Vichy is of course one of the places where one might find references to Pétain: he lived there during four years as the head of the infamous collaborationist "Etat francais" regime (the last statue of Pétain was reportedly removed from the Vichy streets only 3 years ago). Lastly, there may be some mention of him at the Fort de Pierre-Levée citadel on the Île d'Yeu, where he was imprisoned following his trial and died in 1951.

While the plaque is due to his 1931 visit, I think the plaque itself is quite recent, and has been a point of controversy from the start. The same applies to the one honouring the Shah of Iran, but there the objections come from Muslims, who object to people walking over the name of the Prophet.

Incidentally, France renamed the last street named after Pétain a few years. The same des not apply to Petain (sic) Ave in Milltown NJ.

A state-run Chinese media agency faces growing backlash over its propaganda video demeaning India's Sikh community, the latest development in what's fast becoming a volatile border dispute between the two nuclear powers.

Titled "7 Sins of India," the video features a Chinese actor, dressed in a turban and phony beard, reciting monosyllabic lines in English but in a manner Indians "are perceived to speak," as the Hindustan Times characterized it.

Critics in India, China and elsewhere have condemned the video as flagrantly racist.

The three-minute clip was published Wednesday on several verified social media channels operated by Xinhua News, an English-language outlet headquartered in Beijing and overseen by China's State Council. It's available internationally on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. In China, however, another English-language news site appears to have been censored after criticizing the video.

juror no. 47: He's the most hated man in America. In my opinion, he equates with Bernie Madoff with the drugs for pregnant women going from $15 to $750. My parents are in their eighties. They're struggling to pay for their medication. My mother was telling me yesterday how my father's cancer drug is $9,000 a month.

the court: The case is going to come before you on evidence that you must consider fairly and with an open mind.

juror no. 47: I would find that difficult.

the court: And that's based on your parents' experience with medication?

juror no. 47: It's based on people working very hard for their money. He defrauded his company and his investors, and that's not right.

the court: Ma'am, we're going to excuse you

[...]

juror no. 52: When I walked in here today I looked at him, and in my head, that's a snake -- not knowing who he was. I just walked in and looked right at him and that's a snake.

brafman: So much for the presumption of innocence.

the court: We will excuse Juror Number 52.

[...]

The court: Juror Number 10, please come forward.

juror no. 10: The only thing I'd be impartial about is what prison this guy goes to.

the court: Okay. We will excuse you.

[...]

juror no. 59: Your Honor, totally he is guilty and in no way can I let him slide out of anything because --

the court: Okay. Is that your attitude toward anyone charged with a crime who has not been proven guilty?

juror no. 59: It's my attitude toward his entire demeanor, what he has done to people.

This item appeared in a Metafilter thread. I noted with interest, commenters were uncertain that the transcript of court proceedings published Harper's magazine were accurate representations of verbal com, because.

Doubt implies the general population has no fucking clue what skill stenography entails, every court and every atty administering a deposition records communications, that court proceedings are published, that one may obtain published US court proceeding (@PACER).

Anyone who votes in party primaries before a general election automatically would be counted as voting for that party in a general election, according to a bill submitted Monday by Likud MK Yoav Kisch.

Kisch's bill is intended to target the so-called "New Likudniks," a group of centrists who want the party to become less extreme and return to the values they say existed when Likud was led by Menachem Begin and are no longer prevalent in the party.

Menachem Begin did consistently object to Ben-Gurion's apartheid policies before 1966. And here, just in time for you, is Uri Avnery's latest column, "Kaya, the royal Dog ".

YEARS AGO, a leading French journalist came to me during an Israeli election campaign. I directed him to an election rally of Menachem Begin's.

When he came back he was bewildered. "I don't understand it," he exclaimed. "When he was talking about the Arabs, he sounded like a rabid fascist. When he was talking about social affairs, he sounded like a moderate liberal. How can this fit together?"

"Begin is not a great thinker," I explained to him. "All the ideology of the Likud goes back to Vladimir Jabotinsky."

Vladimir (or Ze'ev) Jabotinsky was the founder of the "revisionist" party, the parent of the Herut Party, which was the parent of the present-day Likud. He was born in 1880 in Odessa in the Ukraine. When he was young man he was sent as a journalist to Italy, a country that had attained its freedom not so long before.

The Italian liberation movement was an unusual mixture of extreme patriotism and liberal social ideas. This fixed the young Jabotinsky's political outlook for life.

and yet I remember reading recently about a (rather obscure) jewish poet who realised after participating in one particularly bloody episode in 1948 that Israel was embrked on a project of "clearances" not dissimilar to those practised by previous Jewish oppressors.

I wish I'd had longer to get to know Alex, but I'm glad he is not alive now to see how the realisation of his dreams has betrayed its roots. Last week, Israel's communications minister, Ayoub Kara, who calls Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a "close friend", told the Jerusalem Post that staying on the right side of President Trump was more important than condemning the neo-Nazis marching in Charlottesville, Virginia. In other words, for Israel, Trump trumps Nazis, because that's where we are in 2017.

"Due to terrific relations with the US, we need to put the declarations about the Nazis in the proper proportion," Kara told the Post. "We need to condemn antisemitism and any trace of Nazism... but Trump is the best US leader Israel has ever had... and we must not accept anyone harming him."

So Israel will do what it can to stop the spread of Nazism, except criticise a man who insisted there were some "very fine people" marching with neo-Nazis earlier this month. Whoa, don't strain a muscle, Israel, you're doing some pretty extreme backwards bends there!

The Lebanese Armed Forces have been trained and equipped by numerous Western countries, but mainly the United States and the United Kingdom. On the first day of the Fajr al-Joroud offensive, Lebanese Armed Forces spokesman Ali Qanso pronounced, "The Lebanese army is not coordinating with Hezbollah and the Syrian army, either directly or indirectly." That said, images and sources on the ground suggest a different reality, indicating close coordination between the Lebanese Armed Forces, Hezbollah and the Syrian army. This led to mockery on social media and the posting of pictures of Hezbollah fighters and Lebanese army soldiers side by side in the offensive accompanied by a hashtag in Arabic that loosely translates, "Oh what a coincidence!" Meanwhile, British and US officials have both confirmed their forces' active presence among the Lebanese Armed Forces in the previous and ongoing border operations, resulting in an incredibly awkward reality on the ground.

[...]

The United States and the United Kingdom cannot be seen as having any association, even indirect, with Hezbollah and the Syrian army, essentially forcing all parties concerned to participate in what can only be described as an international charade for the sake of plausible deniability. According to the source close to Hezbollah and the Lebanese Armed Forces, "US Central Command called the Lebanese army chief and asked him to deny any cooperation, telling him that while they are aware of cooperation, it has to be denied publicly."

And yet this kind of stuff works in keeping stuff out of the general narrative. Even if reported, the onus is always on us as individuals to remember it and bring it up, because the papers that reported it will put it down the memory hole.

Like the endless loop of "stuff happening in Syria" -> "US considers sending arms" while they were sending arms the whole time (and according to recent reports paying the rebels salaries). And still people think that Obama kept out of Syria.

Though that loop appears to be coming to an end what with Assad and the Kurds winning the war against IS (and hopefully continuing peace with each other). Remains to be seen what becomes of the Turkish occupied territories and the last non-IS rebel pockets in the west.

Terna's "Piedmont-Savoy" 190km interconnector will link northwest Italy with southeast France, between Piossasco and Grande-Île.
[...]
Terna is workingon the underground cable project with its French counterpart, RTE. Total costs are estimated to reach a billion euros.
[...]Commission funds France-Ireland power link that bypasses UK

In Italy, electricity generated from renewable energy sources is promoted through a number of feed-in and premium tariffs as well as a tendering system. Depending on the source and the size, RES-E plant operators may be obliged to opt for a certain system or may choose between the available ones. Electricity may be sold on the free market or through "ritiro dedicato" (purchase by Gestore dei Servizi Elettrici at a guaranteed price). Under certain conditions, electricity producers can make use of "scambio sul posto" (net-metering).

The European Commission has allocated 4 million to a project that will link the French and Irish electricity grids via an undersea cable. Irish lawmakers have now touted the plan as an "obvious solution" to Ireland's energy reliance on a post-Brexit United Kingdom.The Celtic Interconnector project is a planned 600-km-long undersea electricity cable with a capacity of 700 MW, which will link the southern coast of Ireland with the northwest tip of France.

In Ireland, electricity from renewable sources was mainly promoted through a feed-in-tariff scheme (REFIT) that operated as a floor price. As of January 2016, there is no support scheme available for renewable energies, pending the introduction of a new support scheme, which is expected to be introduced in 2017-2018. The public consultation on the new scheme is about to be opened.

'A mission for fewer emissions' August 9, 2017 American Society of Agronomy

Summary: Manure is a reality in raising farm animals. Manure can be a useful fertilizer, returning valued nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium to the soil for plant growth. But manure has problems. Odor offensiveness, gas emissions, nutrient runoff, and possible water pollution are just a few. New methods may reduce these negatives while potentially adding some positives: biochar covers.
.....

In addition to the inconvenience of odor, manure can release gases connected to air pollution and climate change. Methane, nitrous oxide, ammonia, and hydrogen sulfide are examples. Scientist Brian Dougherty and colleagues researched methods to reduce these negatives while potentially adding some positives: biochar covers. Biochar is plant matter, such as straw, woody debris, or corn stalks, that has been heated to high temperatures in a low- to no-oxygen environment. The result is a black, carbon-rich material similar to charcoal.

Dougherty says biochar is like a sponge. "Biochar provides a structure with lots of empty pore space" he says. "The outer surface may appear small but the interior surface area is absolutely massive. A few ounces of biochar can have an internal surface area the size of a football field. There is a lot of potential there for holding on to water and nutrients."

In addition to its hidden storage capacity, the surface of the biochar tends to have a chemical charge. This gives biochar the ability to attract and hold nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium ions, metals, and other compounds. Biochar can also float (some types more than others). That attribute means it can trap gases at the water's surface.

Earthquake vibrations are revealing just how deep the continents beneath our feet go.

Researchers analyzed seismic waves from earthquakes that have rocked various regions throughout the world, including the Americas, Antarctica and Africa. In almost every place, patterns in these waves indicated a layer of partially melted material between 130 and 190 kilometers underground.

That boundary marks the bottom of continental plates, argue Saikiran Tharimena, a seismologist at the University of Southampton in England, and colleagues. Their finding, reported in the Aug. 11 Science, may help resolve a longtime debate over the thickness of Earth's landmasses.

EARLIER this year Françoise Hardy, a French musician, appeared in a YouTube video (see link). She is asked, by a presenter off-screen, why President Donald Trump sent his press secretary, Sean Spicer, to lie about the size of the inauguration crowd. First, Ms Hardy argues. Then she says Mr Spicer "gave alternative facts to that". It's all a little odd, not least because Françoise Hardy (pictured), who is now 73, looks only 20, and the voice coming out of her mouth belongs to Kellyanne Conway, an adviser to Mr Trump.

The video, called "Alternative Face v1.1", is the work of Mario Klingemann, a German artist. It plays audio from an NBC interview with Ms Conway through the mouth of Ms Hardy's digital ghost. The video is wobbly and pixelated; a competent visual-effects shop could do much better. But Mr Klingemann did not fiddle with editing software to make it. Instead, he took only a few days to create the clip on a desktop computer using a generative adversarial network (GAN), a type of machine-learning algorithm. His computer spat it out automatically after being force fed old music videos of Ms Hardy. It is a recording of something that never happened

Back in the late '70s, the last time I was involved in new electronic circuit design, I saw an article, perhaps in Electronics Design magazine, that described a chip that was, essentially, an analog of the human vocal tract. By feeding audio of a given person speaking over and over a set of parameters could be derivied and, IIRCC, stored in programmable read only memory, be used in conjunction with the chip to render speech from text input that sounded like the person who had been analyzed.

A few years later I had designed and installed a board room AV system for an LA based petroleum company headed by a well known philanthropist/business man/art collector. This system was used for board room meetings, some of which were confidential, so I was sent out to the hall, which was lined with the CEO's Renaissance paintings. While out there one time the CEO was in a telephone booth being importuned by relatives to attend a wedding. (I had really no place to go where I could not hear.)

I thought about that, the veneration and the avidity of the descendents and relatives for the advice, etc. of the 'great man', and then of the artificial vocal tract. At that time we were just starting to get AI expert systems. So I conceived of a product:

THE VOICE OF (FILL IN THE BLANK)

With the artificial vocal tract and the AI program I could offer the very wealthy a product that would allow their descendants to avail themselves of the wisdom of their ancestor. I described this joke system to another small enterprise CEO with whom I had worked to develop the Digital Editor for the 3M Digital Audio Mastering System. I told him: "The marketing plan is simplicity itself! A direct appeal to the vanity of the rich! He said "You had better be careful."

An 8-year-old Israeli girl found a rare coin from the Second Temple period.

The half-shekel coin dates from a time when it was used to pay a yearly Temple tax, archaeologist Zachi Dvira told The Times of Israel. The custom is prescribed in the Torah (Exodus 30:11-16).

Hallel Halevy discovered the coin in May when she was picking up her sister from kindergarten in the Halamish settlement in the West Bank, The Times of Israel reported. On Wednesday, she gave the coin to the archaeological department of the Israeli body that coordinates government activities in the West Bank, as required by law.

After Halevy told her father about the find, he contacted a local professor, Zohar Amar of Bar-Ilan University. Amar conducted some research and was able to identify the find as a half-shekel coin that he believes was made in 66-70 C.E.

I think it prudent in consideration of comments about the weakness of EU institutions (supra-national, or federal, constitution joining the several states in common law enforcement) to introduce text of Articles of Confederation, ratified by British American colonies' ("states'") delegates 1777-1781 for your review.

I have postulated elsewhere, contemporary ructions within EU member states as well as evolution and adoption of EP authorities is analogous to historical establishment of a strong central government bureaucracy and common currency among the USA, culminating in a notorious civil war here. Several european politicians have denied this analogy, "United States of Europe". Nonetheless, here you --as well as innerboob spectators in the USA -- feebly grappling competition among signatories to retain "sovereignty" while a bloodless political revolution ripens. The US gov't required some 100 years and trillions of US Treasury income tax authority and revenue, distributed as block grants ("incentives") among the sovereign states, to obviate "consensus" among states' legislators (10th Amd.). The EP is but 30-years-old.

This document, Articles of Confederation, is the precursor of the US Constitution (hegemon) and, like documents governing the first National Assembly of France or Concert of Europe/Congress of Vienna (republic proxy), is seldom acknowledged or referred to anymore by either self-styled nationalist, federalist, or Anti-federalist scholars. However I keep a copy of American Scripture in my stacks to supplement historiagraphies and hagiographies served from Teh Cloud to the insouciant. You may note, the text of the Articles primarily addresses adjudication and severability of commerce and piracy sanctioned by any one state rather than "the united States in congress assembled".

Accordingly, in review, you may evaluate and anticipate controversy within EU social structures as I do from some perspective on perfect unions, not addressed from black histories of "civilization".

The Citizenship Law of 1999, which was officially taken into effect on January 1, 2000, has facilitated the acquisition of German citizenship for people born outside of Germany, making it available to Turkish immigrants after eight years of legal residence in the country. The law's most innovative provision granted dual citizenship to Turkish-origin children born in Germany; however, by age twenty-three German-born Turks can no longer be dual citizens and must decide whether to keep their German citizenship or the citizenship of their parent's country of birth.[64*]

FATCA requires foreign banks to report all accounts held by U.S. citizens to the IRS or risk being assessed a 30 percent withholding tax. Willful failure to file a foreign bank account report invites a penalty [ASSESSED ON THE FOREIGN BANK] of 50 percent of the value of the account or $100,000, whichever is greater.

< wipes tears >

the Sixth Circuit affirmed Judge Rose's decision Friday, finding that the plaintiffs have no standing to challenge FATCA.

in merica, contrary to legend and commonsensical appearances of a "crime" or "conspiracy" to commit a crime, unless U R a suspect trrst i.e. colored person, alleged intention i.e. pre-crime does has not and never will obtain standing to litigate. Enactment and application of every law is retrospective as it should be; that is plaintiff must have suffered an actual, factual, and material injury, or "loss", before any petition for remedy e.g. capital punishment may be addressed in a court. Rule of Atty #4. Amen.

"I am calling on all my countrymen in Germany: the Christian Democrats, SDP, the Green Party are all enemies of Turkey. Support those political parties who are not enemies of Turkey," he said in comments after Friday prayers in Istanbul.

The ultimate insult to the FDP - he doesn't even think they are worth mentioning....

"Enactment and application of every law is retrospective as it should be; that is plaintiff must have suffered an actual, factual, and material injury, or "loss", before any petition for remedy e.g. capital punishment may be addressed in a court."

In the USA,the convicted person doesn't "appeal" the sentence. The convict's complaint addresses the injury (certain death) resulting from defective "due process" at trial e.g. errors in findings of fact (evidence) or findings of law (procedure) that preclude an exculpatory verdict. The remedy sought is a new trial.

We don't have the death penalty in Ireland. Court injunctions can be sought against parties whose current or intended actions could be damaging or prejudicial to a plaintiff to prevent the harm actually occurring. Appeals to a higher court can be against either or both conviction and sentence on points of fact or law..

I was waiting for this < wipes tears > the minute after I posted an axiomatic answer (appeal of verdict) to a specific, hypothetical injury, capital punishment.

First, permit me to rephrase cause of action, an axiom of US law enforcement: Any punishment, either "certain death <b, detention, or economic penalty</b>" ordered by the state is never a crime. To the contrary, sentencing is justice served, man.

The crime is alleged error(s) committed, or admitted, by the state [!] in administering due process (codified by each state and the federal gov't.) for which plaintiff seeks remedy from the state [!] for losses of innocence and liberties ... such as life.

But you've got some M.O., Frank. Some might call it "moving goal post."

So, second, permit me to I commend the constitution of the Republic of Ireland as you will. For a mere five (5) of fifty republics, commonly known as the "united States" prohibit capital punishment. Look upon leader of the "free world" and "greatest purveyor of violence" with wonder.

I look forward to learning anything about procedures of law enforcement and litigation in Ireland.

I am not a lawyer, and my interest in Justice in Ireland is focused on restorative justice. So, alas, I am not well equipped to brief you on matters of justice in Ireland more generally. But you may find the linked article of interest.

I sympathize with you and all people who endeavor and have endeavored with word and deed to alter the course of injustice where found in law --the code of socially acceptable and socially unacceptable behaviors.

This penance 'bout broke my heart: "1. Writing about who was affected by their actions and how, what they have learned from their experience and what they would do differently in a similar situation in future...." Were you to enter a sentencing hearing in any parts of the US criminal court, you'd hear the same pleas. And all too often the same, ruthless response from the penitentiaries.

Redeem Yourself

Histories, tragedies, discretion and mercy, states' budgets, charitable donations, volunteer and paid hours are littered with such experiments to test that common wisdom and common law of justice that harbors nothing but retribution demanded by the "offender's" peers, the society from which he or she emerges. As if they'd no guilt --responsibility for-- the creation, violation, and consequences of the laws which bind them.

Make Me Whole

I commend you for accepting those responsibilities in a manner that repairs the dignity of the convicted and may enjoin the anger of the plaintiffs with reconciliation that this remedy offers them. It ought to be sufficient punishment tied to the inevitable loss of liberty this discipline requires to restore peaceful society. (But here we are, quibbling how much is too much interest added to principal borrowed.)

That's not in the article. And the IRS website contradicts it. You may recall somebody on ET a few years ago described falling afoul of this law (FBAR rather than FATCA, but the penalties are similar) after following advice from a consultant - legal interpretation of "willful" may not be the same as common sense - despite having declared and paid tax on all his income.

retrospective as it should be

Why "should be"? What's wrong with being able to challenge laws for being unconstitutional without being harmed by them, as in Germany? There are arguments both ways. Contrary to what some Americans think, "is done by the US" is not the same "should be"

plaintiff must have suffered an actual, factual, and material injury, or "loss"

Are you implying that the lawyers were so ignorant as not to know that? The debate was specifically about the meaning of "suffered"

A foreign bank's refusal to accept U.S. clients may be related to FATCA's reporting requirements, but it is the bank's decision and that injury cannot be imputed to the U.S. government, the panel ruled.

Writing, codifying, a law --NEW TO THE WORLD-- which anticipates every event and condition of necessity, interpretation, and contingency its beneficial intent will said to be applicable and "fair" is difficult, you may have noticed.

Unintended Consequences

So there are none in fact. People revise the language of law to address their experience in detecting violation of such rule as was codified and perforce their dissatisfaction with the "letter" that expresses socially acceptable and unacceptable behavior of the day.

Some people revise law more frequently than others. Some revision of statute appears in whole or in part, perfecting or corrupting, the intentions of reformers and of course adversaries.

This process is what I mean in saying the law is retrospective as it should be.

The taxes, established by the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act in 2010, were called "draconian" by the attorney representing several citizens that sued the federal government in July 2015.

FATCA requires foreign banks to report all accounts held by U.S. citizens to the IRS or risk being assessed a 30 percent withholding tax. Willful failure to file a foreign bank account report invites a penalty of 50 percent of the value of the account or $100,000, whichever is greater.

[my editorial annotation,"Asssessed on foreign bank", removed without prejudice to facilitate reading of following citation.]

(b)Penalty for nondisclosureAny person who is required to file a return under subsection (a) with respect to any foreign entity transaction and fails to file such return on or before the date prescribed therefor (or files false or incomplete information with respect to such transaction) shall pay a penalty equal to the greater of--

(1)$10,000, or
(2)50 percent of the gross income derived by such person with respect to aid, assistance or advice which is provided with respect to such transaction before the date the return is filed under subsection (a).

The courtnews.com exposition conflates penalty amounts specified for each class of ... offender. "Any person" engrosses foreign financial institutions (FFIs) as well as US account holders of same. Read further. USC provisions also provide other, specific penalties for a US account holder's failure to disclose his or her assets held by a foreign FFI. Application of the law is discriminatory such that US "persons" enjoy a "tax benefit" by comparison to FFIs. Search "penalty."

The IRS of the USA notes public law in effect, 2016 expiration of HIRE, enrolled 2010, notwithstanding: "The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), which was passed as part of the HIRE Act, generally requires that foreign financial Institutions and certain other non-financial foreign entities report on the foreign assets held by their U.S. account holders or be subject to withholding on withholdable payments. The HIRE Act also contained legislation requiring U.S. persons to report, depending on the value, their foreign financial accounts and foreign assets."

50%, 35%, or 30% penalty proportion of US account holder estimated value assets applies to which class of conspirator to hide taxable income? Bills restoring HIRE (with FACTA provisions) in this session, 2017, have been introduced in US House and Senate.

So. No. I do not rely on old ET diaries for legal advice. Nor do I assume newsfile interprets legislation and its application accurately. But, yes, I had expected ET readers to be most interested in juridical reach of USC in regulating business of foreign "persons" beyond the USA border, IF NOT the test of "standing" by plaintiffs contesting an event which has not occured. My bad.